If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Peter, I priced up buying my mini-itx pc in September with hardwareversand and it still worked out cheaper to buy with overclockers.co.uk, just as an fyi (the two day delivery to Ireland and not having to fuck around with payment were a bonus).

Firstly: Z77 and i5-3570K carry an overclocking premium. Is he going to overclock? If not, save the money and get a H77 + i5 3530 or 3330

Fifthly, try get a cheaper 250GB SSD. I have a 256gb Samsung 830 that I got for around €150 last september, and my brother has a 256gb Crucial M4 that I got for €120 on Black Friday from Amazon. Both of us have filled the 256gb up quickly with Windows, games and most frequently used apps.

Firstly: Z77 and i5-3570K carry an overclocking premium. Is he going to overclock? If not, save the money and get a H77 + i5 3530 or 3330

Fifthly, try get a cheaper 250GB SSD. I have a 256gb Samsung 830 that I got for around €150 last september, and my brother has a 256gb Crucial M4 that I got for €120 on Black Friday from Amazon. Both of us have filled the 256gb up quickly with Windows, games and most frequently used apps.

Sixthly: Why a 1TB hdd? And why a WD Red?

1. Looks like an overclocking build with that big cooler. The Asrock Z75 Pro3 looks cheaper and is identical apart from the chipset (and the Z75 chipset is very similar to the Z77 chipset), so that would be a place to save some money. Otherwise, for serious overclocking, you might spend some more to get a board with more serious VRMs (MSI Z77A-G45, Asrock Z77 Extreme3 etc.)
If you're not overclocking, B75 is usually cheaper than H77.

5. Depends what you're after, if you only want to speed up Windows, programs, and a handful of games, 120 GB is fine. Otherwise, 240+ is a good idea. As an added bonus, a larger SSD is also faster (at least at that end of the spectrum). This is particularly true of the 250 GB Samsung 840 vs. the 120 GB version.

My Win8 install(cleaned as much as possible)+hiberfile is 30gb and iirc, you're meant to keep a decent % of space on an SSD free or it starts to significantly affect performance? I just personally find it silly to spend ~€800 on a PC only to have to micromanage an SSD - but YMMV and all that :)

Also, 3 TB WD Red is less than twice the price, and the WD Red commands a significant premium for no reason that will benefit the OP's brother. Personally, I'd steer clear of WD as they seem to suffer worse reliability than Seagate or Hitachi/Toshiba based on Amazon.com/Newegg 1star reviews.

My Win8 install(cleaned as much as possible)+hiberfile is 30gb and iirc, you're meant to keep a decent % of space on an SSD free or it starts to significantly affect performance? I just personally find it silly to spend ~€800 on a PC only to have to micromanage an SSD - but YMMV and all that :)

To some extent yes, though SSDs also have a "hidden" amount of storage that is used to help performance and increase longevity. But sure, the practical difference between 120 GB and 240+ is significant, and when you also get better performance, it's a good investment.

I don't know how it compares to the WD Red or anything but I have a Seagate 2TB Barracuda which was £70 from Scan, it does perfectly well as a gaming drive since the only game I have on my SSD is BF3. I find everything else loads acceptably quickly from the HDD, so... Yes.

On my 128Gb M4 have only D3, SC2, LoL and maybe one other game, plus 50% of my applications on it. Down to 15GB left. Win updates and other files get on it (Default Save location folder is in your Users, while movable some games/applications may not like it) are slowly filling it up.

I have been using Seagate Barracudas since 2005 with no problems. I guess I have not really looked into the minor differences between model lines other than RPM and SATA I/II/III.

Good review on the latest Crucial drives and comparision to other SSDs.http://www.anandtech.com/show/6884/c...gb-240gb-120gb
I just got a M500 right before I read this. I will keep it since the user will never notice the performance difference and I liked my m4. The review does show the performance gains that Sakkura has mentioned when going to a larger SSD.

I just got a Samsung 840 250GB for my birthday, and I really like it. You don't really notice the reduced write speeds vs. other drives, and its high read speeds are very nice. Not all that expensive either, but still a good dent in your wallet.

On my 128Gb M4 have only D3, SC2, LoL and maybe one other game, plus 50% of my applications on it. Down to 15GB left. Win updates and other files get on it (Default Save location folder is in your Users, while movable some games/applications may not like it) are slowly filling it up.

I have Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, Torchlight II, XCOM and a handful of smaller games on my 120 GB SSD, along with Windows and all of my programs (including Steam, though with a secondary game library on a 500 GB HDD). I have 24 GB left.

Yah, I'm sure I have something eating up, or what I have is a lot of space. But it runs out fast and if I had the option I would have more games that I frequent on the SSD (WoW, MWO, NS2, smaller indie games).

Got all the parts now. I wondering something about the i5s included heat sink. It already has a thermal compund applied to the bottom of it. I didnt know this and ordered some Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Paste. Would it be best to leave heat sink as it is now, or remove the stuff on it, and replace with the Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Paste?

I dont like the way the paste is set up currently on the heat sink. It may be just my ignorance. It looks like there is gaps as you should be able to see at this time stamp.
Or is it that the pressure of the heatsink being clamped against the CPU will spread out this paste to evenly cover the contact area?